Josefina Auslender
Argentina | United States
Josefina Auslender (b. 1934) is an Argentine-born artist who has been living and working in the United States for nearly forty years. She is a Master draftswoman, working in graphite for over seventy years. In Buenos Aires, Auslender quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed artists of her time, exhibiting in the most prominent galleries, participating in biennials and triennials, and securing multiple solo museum presentations in Argentina and Europe.
Auslender received rigorous academic training at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and the Perugino School of Art. She was mentored by prominent modernist artists, including Antonio Berni and Manuel Espinoza. In the early 1970s, Auslender’s career took off with her first series of drawings generated entirely from her imagination — a departure from the structured academic work she was accustomed to.
The intensification of fear and violence during Argentina's Dirty War prompted Auslender’s relocation to Maine in the late 1980s, at the height of her career. While in the United States, she continued to exhibit abroad, for a time, but slowly eased into a quieter, more introspective lifestyle as she adjusted to life as an immigrant. Even so, Auslender continued her daily practice of drawing, exhibiting work with some of Maine’s most respected galleries of the time, including Rosemarie Frick, June Fitzpatrick, Aucocisco, and the Maine Jewish Museum.
In 2025, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art mounted the first-ever solo museum retrospective of Auslender’s work, a monumental effort featuring nearly 90 drawings created over a 60-year period. A catalog for the exhibition will be released in September 2026. Auslender’s work may be found in multiple institutional and private collections worldwide. She is represented by Sarah Bouchard Gallery.
Selected Works
![Untitled (from La Chimera del Oro)
8 x 8 inches (artwork)
15.75 x 15.5 inches (framed)
Ink on paper
2025 [sold]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69df952ced2431242d7919b8/6e502160-13b3-4965-a709-c41f79d8c766/JosefinaAuslender_Untitled_3.jpg)
Untitled (from La Chimera del Oro)
8 x 8 inches (artwork)
15.75 x 15.5 inches (framed)
Ink on paper
2025 [sold]
![Untitled (from La Chimera del Oro)
11.875 x 12.125 inches (artwork)
19.875 x 19.75 inches (framed)
Ink on paper
2026 [sold]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69df952ced2431242d7919b8/77bd68ba-71a1-474c-b06c-662ce80ce268/JosefinaAuslender_Untitled_1.jpg)
Untitled (from La Chimera del Oro)
11.875 x 12.125 inches (artwork)
19.875 x 19.75 inches (framed)
Ink on paper
2026 [sold]
Untitled (from La Chimera del Oro)
12 x 16 inches (artwork)
20.125 x 23.75 inches (framed)
Ink on paper
2025
Los Cuerpos (01)
23.5 x 17.75 inches (artwork)
32.75 x 26.75 inches (framed)
Graphite, ink, and colored pencil on paper
1979
Los Cuerpos (02)
25.5 x 17.75 inches (artwork)
34.75 x 26.5 inches (framed)
Graphite, ink, and colored pencil on paper
1979
![Self-portrait from the series Los Cuerpos
23.5 x 17.625 inches (artwork)
32.75 x 26.75 inches (framed)
Graphite, ink, and colored pencil on paper
1979 [nfs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69df952ced2431242d7919b8/6895248b-bf57-4411-a307-966401106c7c/JosefinaAuslender_Self-Portrait.jpg)
Self-portrait from the series Los Cuerpos
23.5 x 17.625 inches (artwork)
32.75 x 26.75 inches (framed)
Graphite, ink, and colored pencil on paper
1979 [nfs]
Untitled (from the series La Ciudad)
23 x 18 inches
Graphite on paper
1976
Untitled (from the series La Ciudad)
19.75 x 15.75 inches
Graphite on paper
1975
Untitled (from the series La Ciudad)
20.25 x 14.125 inches
Graphite on paper
1974
Untitled (from the series Enigma)
11.125 x 14.875 inches
Collage, graphite and colored pencil on paper
2018
Untitled (from the series Enigma)
9.125 x 11.75 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
2016
Untitled (from the series Enigma)
9 x 11.75 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
2014
Untitled (from the series Voyage)
18.75 x 16.75 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
2011
Untitled (from the series Voyage)
14.25 x 14.25 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
2013
Untitled (from the series Voyage)
23.5 x 16.5 inches
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
2013
exhibits
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La Chimera del Oro
Josefina Auslender
April 11 – May 17, 2026 [link:/la-chimera-del-oro] -
IN CONVERSATION
Josefina Auslender + Tom Butler
September 23 – December 15, 2023 [link:/auslender-butler-in-conversation] -
A Solo Exhibition
Josefina Auslender
July 2 – August 7, 2022 [link:/auslender-a-solo-exhibition]
Artist Statement
La Chimera del Oro
What I am doing now is reflecting on when I left the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, and my head was full of expectations and admirations. I wanted to be like other people; I wanted to be a successful artist, but my idea of success was like that of many of my classmates and the young artists I met. We wanted to be good. To do beautiful things. To do good art and come out and see what happened. We soon learned that things weren’t like we were taught in the books. The world was changing, and changing rapidly, into… something else. Art became a commodity. People were buying art because in twenty years they could have a fortune, not because they loved art.
A chimera is like walking in the desert, and suddenly you see something shining, and you approach that, and it's so brilliantly beautiful with all those different kinds of yellows and whites, and you approach closer and closer and closer, but you don’t realize that at the same time it is very beautiful, it is very dangerous. It is like a science fiction story, and if you approach it, it swallows you up and takes you over completely. You go into a different dimension and forget all your aspirations. Because new things — exciting and important things — begin to happen to you, and you forget about the art because you don’t have time. You begin working for gold.
Gold becomes like an entity. Like a being that is ruling you, telling you what to do and driving you to different places, because it is very exciting to be close to gold, but at the same time, it is changing you forever.
In a way, I’d like to explain those triangles, and the small debris, where the gold is melting and falling into something more hot — very hot and burning — falling all over. Everything that those drippings of gold touch, they change, including everything around you, completely. And you forget what is really very important because, well… gold is so beautiful.
The person who is immersed in that golden chimera can’t stop. It is like selling your heart — your self — to something very powerful that shows you a beautiful, extraordinary path in life that doesn’t always take you to a happy ending. Because in the end, you realize that you were more interested in gold than in what you were doing. You become afraid of losing those triangles that keep falling over you, constantly. Because they are beautiful. Apparently, your life becomes very beautiful, but you become afraid to step outside that shimmering cloud of gold. So, you stay there and don’t move or do anything that could change things, because you are afraid to lose that kind of brilliance, and your work begins to suffer. A lot. You never change. Your work never changes. And in a way, you die.
You must be strong to leave La Chimera del Oro. These are the mirages of life. You must understand what they imply — they can be wonderful, but also the most terrible thing that can happen to you.
I know it is an unbelievable explanation, but art is that way. You cannot explain art.
— Josefina Auslender, 2026
-
I never do statements because I don’t believe that a piece related to visual art should be explained with words. It must go through other channels inside the human being. What is for the eyes is for the eyes, what is for the ears is for the ears, what is for the mouth is for the mouth.
This is a different circumstance because the work I am showing now was an interruption in my life that lasted for three years and then disappeared. I was working with the series La Ciudad (the City), and suddenly these figures began to come out. I couldn’t erase them.
I wanted to stop them because they weren’t related to what I was doing, but I couldn’t. I talked with my mentor, and he told me, “Just let them come out. You don’t know how long they will last or if they will be interesting. Don’t force yourself not to do something that is coming out so strongly.”
I began to work, and the figures took me completely over like a storm. I worked non-stop. I made lots of small drawings, and then some became larger pieces. Some sold in Buenos Aires and some I am showing now.
At the beginning, I didn’t know why the figures were coming. Later, I learned. It’s strange. It’s a bit surrealistic because it’s something that I really didn’t have too much control over. They were coming and they were showing me something that was going on.
This happened during the time when the militares took over the government in Argentina. Many people were disappearing. We didn’t know where they were going. We didn’t know there were places in the city where they were torturing people. When the militares decided to leave, the trials began. I learned that these drawings began when Argentinians began to be tortured and they finished when the militares were gone.
I am not a hero, and I don’t want people to think that I am a hero or a victim of anything. I was a citizen like everybody else in Argentina, and we didn’t know everything that was going on in the country. I had a feeling that came through me that made me create what I did. This is it.
I detest violence. I am a pacifist. I don’t believe in wars. I don’t believe wars will cure or bring anything nice to a country. On the contrary, it will destroy many wonderful things that a country has, and that people have.
One piece I consider a self-portrait. Almost all the pieces are women. These works show what we felt about our men, our sons and daughters and husbands and ourselves… going out and never knowing if we were going to come back.
My ink drawings are different. I am playing, now. (Referencing the series Wind.)
— Josefina Auslender, 2022
CV
Born: Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1934
Resides: Maine, United States
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Escuela de Arte Perugino
Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prylidiano Pueyrredon
Ceramicas Estudio Carlos Bartolini
Sculptures and drawing studio Aurelio Macchi
-
2026
La Chimera del Oro, Sarah Bouchard Gallery, Woolwich, ME2025–2026
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME2022
Sarah Bouchard Gallery, Woolwich, ME2016
Ocean House Gallery, Cape Elizabeth, ME2014
Jewish Museum of Art, Portland, ME2006
Icon Gallery, Brunswick, ME2002
Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME1997
June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME1994
Thomas Memorial Library, Cape Elizabeth, ME
Rose Marie Frick Gallery, Belfast, ME1989
Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina1986
Galeria Arte Nuevo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fundacion San Telmo and Banco Tornquist, Buenos Aires, Argentina1985
Museo Municipal de Artes Visuales, Santa Fe, Argentina1984
Galeria Arte Nuevo, Buenos Aires, Argentina1982
Galeria del Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina1979
Galeria del Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina1978
Galeria Durban, Madrid, Spain1977
Galeria del Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina1975
Galeria Bonino, Buenos Aires, Argentina1974
Galeria Bonino, Buenos Aires, Argentina1973
Latin American Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina -
2023
Josefina Auslender + Tom Butler, in conversation, Sarah Bouchard Gallery, Woolwich, ME2021
A Gathering of Aces, Sarah Bouchard Gallery, Woolwich, ME2018
Flux, Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME2013
Josefina Auslender and Tanya Fletcher, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME
Maine Women Pioneers #3, University of New England Art Gallery, Portland, ME
Passikon, June Fitzpatrick Gallery at MECA, curated by Rose Marie Frick, Portland, ME2011
George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME2008
Linear Perspectives, CMCA Exhibition at June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
The discerning eye of Rose Marie Frick, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME2007
Graphite Exhibition, curated by Susan Danly, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
International Biennial of Abstract Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina.2006
Icon Gallery, Brunswick, ME2002
Celebrating Drawings, York Historical Society, York, ME
George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME2001
Abstraction - 22 Visions, Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset, ME1999
Icon Gallery, Brunswick, ME1998
Maine Coastal Artists Art Show1996
Solstice Tree Show, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME1994
Maine Coastal Artists, XVI Annual Juried Exhibition1992
Work on Paper II, Rose Marie Frick Gallery, Belfast, ME1988
The Woman in Argentina’s Fine Art, Malvinas Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina1986
First Latin American Biennial of Drawings, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Homage to Garcia Lorca, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Drawings in Argentina, Journeys of the Critics LXXXVI, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina1984
Troise aspects du realism en Argentina, Paris, France
Week of a Democratic Argentina, Museum of America, Madrid, Spain1983
Journey of the Critics, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Invited Artists at the Drawing Award, Navarro Correas Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Maldonado Biennial, Maldonado, Uruguay1982
Fifty Argentine Draftsmen, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fifth Triennial of Contemporary Art, Delhi, India1980
Fifteen Artist in the 400th Anniversary of Buenos Aires, Collection Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina1979
Homage Julio Verne, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Young Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Tucuman, Argentina
Drawing in Argentina, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina1977
Actual Vision of Argentinean Young Artists, Foundation Armando Penteado, San Pablo, Brazil1976
International Award Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain1975
Biennial Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires, Museo of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
International Award Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain1974
International Award Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain
Municipal Museum of Fine Arts Manuel Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina1973
Drawings and Prints - IX Salon, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Salon, Municipal Museum of Fine Arts Manuel Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina1972
Salon, Municipal Museum of Fine Arts Manuel Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina1971
Drawings and Prints, XIII Salon Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina -
2005
Invited artist – American Academy in Rome1988
Lecture – Museum of Modern Art – Buenos Aires -
1983
Bull Argentina, V Biennial, Maldonado, Uruguay1978
Third prize, X Salon, Ceramics1975
Third prize, Biennial, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires1973
First Mention, Salon Manuel Belgrano1969
First Prize, XI Salon Nacional Ceramics -
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, U.S.A.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, U.S.A.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.
MTB Banking, NYC, NY, US.A.
Ernest Young Corporation, U.S.A.
University of Essex Art Museum, UECLA, England
Pepsi Cola Foundation, U.S.A.
City Bank Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bull Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museum of American Art, Uruguay
Museum Trenque Lauquen, Argentina
Museum of Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Municipal Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A.
Argentina Municipal Museum of Visual Arts, Argentina
Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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2019
ICA at MECA, Drawing Now Catalog, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.
The Café Review Vol 30 – Poetry and Art Book – Portland, Maine. U.S.A.Winter 2017
Maine Arts Journal, UMVA Quarterly, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.2014
Catalog for Jewish Museum of Art Exhibition, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.2012–13
Maine Women Pioneer III Book, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.2010
ACME Fine Art Publication, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.2009
The Café Review Vol. 20 – Poetry and Art Book – Portland, Maine, U.S.A.2006
Portland Press Herald, Philip Isaacson
A carrier in two parts, Portland Press Herald, Bob Keyes
Josefina Auslender, Art New England, Lauren Fensterstock1997
Portland Press Herald, Philip Isaacson1994
Portland Press Herald, Philip Isaacson1989
Prologue for Catalogue Museum of Modern Arte by Guillermo Whitelow1986
Art Inf
La Creatividad y El capricho
Carlos Espartaco. Bs.As.
Hugo Petruchansky
Prologue
Arte Nuevo Gallery
The Suggesting possibilities of drawing by Jorge L. Anaya1984
Red and Black by Viviana Anono1982
Josefina Auslender and Her Play With Space by Carmen Medrano – Fasciculo 114
Argentine Artists of the XX century
Serie Argentine Draftsmen by Elba Perez, Bs.As1979
Prologue by Guillermo Whitelow
Show at The Retiro Gallery
Lyra Art Magazine
Josefina Auslender by Juan Carlos Gene1978
Josefina Auslender’s work, Carlos Arean
Guadalimar Art Magazine, Madrid, Spain1977
Correo del Arte, Art Magazine1975
International catalogue Joan Miro award, Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain1974
Prologue by Guillermo Whitellow Bonino Gallery, Bs.As.
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